I took a M.L. rifle building course back in '76, and in '77, too. Each course, both years, were once a week in the evenings, and in a high school woodshop for a few hours each evening through a semester's time.
Along with his fine talents as a gun builder, our instructor was very knowledgeable on both old and new ways concerning traditional gun building and repairs. This very "bent barrel" question came up in one of our classes, and our instructor told us one way to straighten a barrel was by laying a pile of carpeting in a stairwell, and taking one GOOD whack on the barrel against the carpets. Then, it was to reassemble the gun, try it out on a target, and repeat the process until the gun would shoot true. Never had to do this, but I always remember the talk on the subject that one evening. He said the angle of the stairwell helped in the control of the "whack," by the "whacker." (FWIW)
Along with his fine talents as a gun builder, our instructor was very knowledgeable on both old and new ways concerning traditional gun building and repairs. This very "bent barrel" question came up in one of our classes, and our instructor told us one way to straighten a barrel was by laying a pile of carpeting in a stairwell, and taking one GOOD whack on the barrel against the carpets. Then, it was to reassemble the gun, try it out on a target, and repeat the process until the gun would shoot true. Never had to do this, but I always remember the talk on the subject that one evening. He said the angle of the stairwell helped in the control of the "whack," by the "whacker." (FWIW)